Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 143 Is it really worth it? (Bonus chapter for Yong Su's Alliance Leader)
Yang Siyao suggested planting spies among the disaster victims, and it worked well; at least none of the hundreds of people who had their heads chopped off were innocent. Yang Siyao had warned Song Yan about the consequences of doing so. Killing hundreds of disaster victims would cause a bloodbath in the court, and at the very least, the Yang family would never let go of this opportunity to attack him.

However, Song Yan didn't care.

Since he dared to do such a thing, he must have a way to deal with it.

Moreover, that's not enough.

The informants can only uncover a portion of the truth; what filth lies hidden in places they cannot see? Even on the journey of these disaster victims to Ningping, who knows what tragedies might occur, like that woman before, whose husband was murdered and who was forced to sleep with him just to save her daughter's life.

When order collapses, the evil in human nature is more ferocious than jackals and hyenas.

The scene fell into deathly silence.

This eerie silence lasted for a long time. Finally, an old man in his sixties stood up shakily. Not far from the old man, a man's face changed drastically. He wanted to threaten him, but there were soldiers around, so he didn't dare to say it out loud. He could only keep winking at the old man with a fierce look on his face.

But the old man no longer cared about any of that.

One cruel story after another unfolded before Song Yan's eyes from the old man's mouth.

The matter is very simple and not complicated.

The old man was not from Songzhou Prefecture, but from another prefecture. His wife had passed away and his son had died young. He only had a daughter in her twenties who was still alive. In order to take care of her father, the daughter had never married.

Because of the flood in his hometown, he was forced to become a refugee. He originally wanted to escape to the local prefecture to seek a chance to survive, but on the way he heard that the princess of Songzhou Prefecture was opening granaries to distribute food, and that as long as you were from Ningguo, you could have something to eat when you arrived in Ningping County.

Despite the long journey, the father and daughter decided to try their luck in Ningping County in order to survive.

Who would have thought that they would run into the man next to them on the way?

One night, the man and his accomplices kidnapped the old man's daughter. After that, the old man never saw his daughter again, except for her clothes, which were stained with blood.

There was a fire nearby, and next to it were gnawed bones.

His words sent a chill down everyone's spine.

Even Song Yan felt a chill run through his body, and a layer of fine goosebumps appeared on his skin. People eating each other, exchanging children to eat—once upon the advent of such things, these sentences were merely a lightly mentioned record in history books. But only when one personally encounters such things can one truly feel the oppression and terror, and deeply understand the despair.

The sorrow of the lower classes in ancient times is something that a modern person can never understand.

Once upon a time, Song Yan even saw some people online saying that they wanted to travel back to the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, just because the scholars of that era were romantic, there were handsome men and beautiful women, and they could even be a leading lady... But in reality, they would most likely end up as a dish on the dinner table.

Even worse, they might become dried-out military rations.

My chest felt heavy.

Song Yan didn't know how to describe her current feelings; perhaps it was hatred.

Hatred towards the Yang family.

In order to deal with Luo Yuheng and himself, the Yang family used tens of thousands of disaster victims. If it weren't for the news spread by the Yang family, the old man's daughter might not have met such a tragic end, and the woman's husband might still be alive.

His hands clenched unconsciously.

Previously, he wanted to take revenge on the Yang family purely because of Yang Miaoqing, which passively brought him into contact with this behemoth. Now, it's simply because of the hatred deep in his heart.

This is a family teeming with beasts.

It should not exist.

Across from him, the old man dropped his stick and knelt on the ground: "My daughter is gone, and all that's left in the family is me, the most useless old man. I should have died long ago, but I'm still alive, following this bastard, hoping that one day I can see him pay the price for what he did."

"I beg Your Honor to uphold justice for my poor daughter."

Song Yan's body trembled slightly. He took a deep breath: "Besides this person, who else could it be?"

Yang Siyao and Gu Banxia glanced at Song Yan with some worry. They had become accustomed to many things in this world, but Song Yan was different. They could clearly feel the almost uncontrollable, volcanic rage emanating from Song Yan's chest.

The old man raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the burly man before turning to the side: "He..."

"And him..."

"And this person..."

The trembling fingers pointed to seven people, including two women.

Those whose names were called had long lost their previous arrogance; they trembled with fear. They already knew that the young man before them was ruthless killers, and they couldn't imagine what their fate would be.

Song Yan did not publicly pronounce the verdict, but whispered something in Zhang Long's ear. He then noticed that Zhang Long's expression was extremely strange. After a while, Zhang Long nodded and turned to leave. At the same time, several soldiers dragged all the people who had been called to a distant grove of trees.

Before long, a series of shrill screams could be heard coming from afar, interspersed with the barking of dogs.

When all the sounds ceased, tears streamed down the old man's face. He laughed and cried at the same time, then looked up at the sky and called out three times—his daughter's name.

As the sound faded, the old man fell backward to the ground, lifeless. His body was already exhausted; he had only survived until now by clinging to a last breath. When that breath was gone, his life would end.

With the old man leading the way, more and more people stepped forward. During the escape, robbery, murder, assault on women, and petty theft were rampant.

One, two, three...

Song Yan didn't know exactly how many heads he had chopped off; all he knew was that at the East Gate, blood flowed like a river.

Countless corpses were piled up together, doused with oil, and a torch was thrown on top. Thick smoke billowed into the sky. Their last traces in this world, along with their sins, were burned in the flames.

After leaving some people to clean up the remaining bloodstains on the ground, Song Yan went to the west gate.

The people of Ningping County were mostly used to it. After all, the son-in-law of the Princess's Mansion was a ruthless character. He had burned thousands of people alive and chopped off hundreds of heads at will, so it was not surprising at all.

However, the name of the butcher spread quickly.

Even the newly arrived disaster victims were horrified by the dark red soil on the ground and the burning corpses not far away, and dared not do anything rash.

Some of them must have done something bad on their way here. As soon as they arrived in Ningping, they turned around and ran away. They ran very fast, and although they were already exhausted, they seemed to have inexhaustible energy.

After all, that butcher had chopped off hundreds or even thousands of heads, so he obviously wouldn't mind having one more.

Despite being a ruthless butcher, the disaster relief camp was safer than ever before. The remaining victims no longer had to worry about their food being stolen, fathers no longer had to worry about their daughters being coveted, and husbands no longer had to worry about their wives being violated.

……

A busy morning took up a lot of time.

By the time everything at the east and west city gates was finished, it was already noon.

“I finally understand why you placed the disaster victims at the two city gates…” Yang Siyao said slowly on the way: “You knew all along that some people would question the disaster relief grain.”

This is a very serious problem in Ningguo right now.

The people both feared and distrusted the government and the nobility.

Even the eldest princess was no exception. If anyone accused her of embezzling disaster relief funds, people would instinctively believe it. Such a thing was impossible to refute; there was no way to prove one's innocence. Even if one could prove their innocence, people would suspect the evidence was false. Even if no one suspected anything, the Yang family would likely arrange for people to pose as refugees and stir up trouble.

However, if the refugees were allowed to camp at the two city gates, they would become natural witnesses.

You said that the eldest princess embezzled the disaster relief grain, but how did she manage to transport the grain into Ningping? It couldn't have been airdropped, could it?

She admired Song Yan. She hadn't even noticed the crisis, but Song Yan had not only sensed it in advance but had also prepared countermeasures.

only……

Yang Siyao looked around. The street was still crowded and lively, but when they saw Song Yan, their faces turned pale instantly, and they turned their heads to the other side as if afraid of accidentally meeting Song Yan's gaze. The original noise quickly turned into silence.

Even worse, some of them were trembling slightly.

As Song Yan walked by, there was a rustling sound behind him.

"Is it really worth it?" Yang Siyao murmured, her voice so soft that only she could hear it.

Beside her, Gu Banxia bit her lip hard, her eyes red, and she felt an urge to cry as she looked at her son-in-law's back.

Song Yan smiled and said, "I don't care about other people's opinions."

"It's not like I'll lose a piece of my flesh."

He said this.

The tone is brisk.

Then he opened his arms as if embracing something: "If I cared about what others thought, I wouldn't have become a live-in son-in-law."

"hehe."

In that instant, Gu Banxia suddenly felt a stinging sensation in her nose, and she couldn't hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.

It landed.

It brushed across her cheek.

It fell into my lips.

It tastes salty and astringent.

(End of this chapter)